Embrace Herb!

It seems like it has been more than 10 years since NC State hired Herb Sendek to lead the Wolfpack basketball team. The fact is it has been 10 years, 10 tumultuous years at that. Sendek has posted record of 169-115 during his tenure to this point. Any outsider would assume his record was 77-207 due to the heat he receives from critics year in and year out.

The expectation placed upon the shoulders of Sendek is to be on the level of Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. However, the idea that a program of such caliber should be reachable in less than a decade is not a fair one for Herb. Herb has produced what will make 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

It takes time to build a national championship power. Just ask Jim Boeheim, head coach at Syracuse University. It took the now Hall of Fame coach 27 seasons and 879 games to win his first national championship in 2003. It took him 21 seasons to carry the Orange to its first Final Four in Boeheim's tenure in 1987. Another couple of coaches who took a while to take their programs to the promise land are Dean Smith, of UNC, and Jim Calhoun, of UConn.

Sendek is only in his 9th season at the helm of the Wolfpack basketball program and has lifted the program back into respectability. Not only respectability as a winning or capable program, but, as a clean, well-run program. NC State is a basketball program that has been burdened with several scandalous situations. The most recent being the recruiting practices of the late Jim Valvano.

When Sendek took over in 1996 he inherited a team that had suffered through six consecutive losing seasons. Then he posted consecutive 17-15 records and consecutive NIT appearances. In 8 previous seasons the Pack has appeared in the post-season (either NIT or NCAA) in 7 of the seasons. Only the great Everett Case was able to accomplish such a feat. Case was never able to lead the school to a national championship. It was head coach Norm Sloan, who played under Case at State, who would push the school over the hump in 1974.

It cannot be disputed that Sendek's team seems so set in their ways that they will not change anything, period. And that falls on the shoulders of the coach. This was especially evident this past Saturday against Boston College, comments from Jason Simon's blog. In each the end of regulation and both overtime the Pack had the chance to either tie or win, and in each situation they ran the offense as they had the whole game. An offense that takes several seconds of passing to get flowing. An offense that relies on the extra pass. An offense that led to 9 blocked shots by one BC player. An offense that BC claimed was extremely predictable.

That shows a lack of adaptation by Sendek. If the Wolfpack is to make any sort of run in the ACC and/or NCAA tournaments then Herb has to adapt as the game dictates. That doesn't mean get away from what you do, but change how you do it. Or, call me crazy, call a set play in those timeouts that are called in the waning moments of the game. To the naked eye, it appears Herb has the team run the offense it has ran the whole game coming out of timeouts. If that is what is going to happen, then why would you call a timeout? The players already know what is going to be ran.

Some think that Herb is not the guy to add a third banner to the rafters. Well, I think differently. He has built a solid base for the program to stand on. This is not a Villanova type programs that peaks and then plummets to the bottom for a few years. A perennial top-25 program has been built at NC State. And if Herb can adapt and change as the game dictates I think we'll see that change to perennial top-20 to top-10 to, hopefully, a top-5 program. If State fans, who I am amongst, want a Duke or Carolina level program, then they got to give it time. It took time for Coach K to build the top program in the nation just as it took time for Dean Smith to make Carolina one of the top programs in the nation. Give Herb time. He wants it, the players want it, David Thompson wants it and we in the 'Wolfpack Nation' want it. So, embrace Herb, and support him and the program. It's going to take time if it's going to happen. And it can happen if patience is adopted by the faithful and we all...Embrace Herb!


Sources:
gopack.com
http://www.peebs.org/2006/02/06/
http://simonsayshoops.blogspot.com/2006/02/good-stuff-from-acc-now.html
suathletics.com

pictures:
http://www.replayphotos.com/uimages/NCSMB00015_t.jpg
http://media.scout.com/Media/Image/19/198357.jpg
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/08/82/73/image_1173828.jpg